White House Authorshttps://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/authors/25086
enExtended Deadline for Public Access and Digital Data RFIshttps://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/12/21/extended-deadline-public-access-and-digital-data-rfis
In November, OSTP issued two Requests for Information (RFI), one on open access to scientific publications and the other on the management of digital data. Yesterday, responding to numerous requests, we submitted to the Federal Register an extension of the deadlines for those RFIs to January 12, 2012. We anticipate the official notice of that extension appearing in the Federal Register this Friday, but wanted to ensure that all stakeholders knew as soon as possible about the extended deadline.

]]>Rick WeissWed, 21 Dec 2011 19:24:31 +0000<a href="/blog/author/Rick Weiss" class="author-name">Rick Weiss</a>107924 at https://www.whitehouse.gov21st Century Learning: A Digital Promisehttps://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/09/16/21st-century-learning-digital-promise
Today, the White House and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan are announcing the launch of “Digital Promise,” a new national center created by Congress with bipartisan support to advance technologies to transform teaching and learning.

Supported by startup funds from the Department of Education, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation—and overseen by board made up of prominent leaders in education and technology—Digital Promise will work with leading researchers, entrepreneurs, and schools to identify and spur breakthrough learning technologies that deliver the best results for students, parents, and teachers.

]]>EducationTechnologyArne DuncanNew YorkRick WeissFri, 16 Sep 2011 12:57:09 +0000<a href="/blog/author/Rick Weiss" class="author-name">Rick Weiss</a>77563 at https://www.whitehouse.govScientific Integrity Policies Submitted to OSTPhttps://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/08/11/scientific-integrity-policies-submitted-ostp
Federal departments and agencies are making good progress on the development of scientific integrity policies, as initially called for by OSTP director John Holdren in a December 2010 Executive Branch memorandum. Some 19 Federal entities had submitted either draft or final policies as of last week, the deadline Dr. Holdren had set for draft submissions.

That number is smaller than the 30 agencies and departments that had responded in April to an OSTP call for progress reports, but it includes the full spectrum of departments and agencies that had responded at that time. The smaller number reflects the fact that some departments have since decided to develop policies that will apply broadly to a number of their daughter agencies.

For example, the Department of Defense is developing a policy that will apply to several branches that had initially been tallied individually, and the Department of Health and Human Services’ draft policy will apply to multiple components that Dr. Holdren had initially contacted individually, including the Centers for Disease Control, the Food and Drug Administration, and the National Institutes of Health.

Over time, some individual agencies covered by their parent departments’ policies are expected to follow up with policies of their own with additional elements specific to their missions. Indeed, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)—components of the Department of Commerce—are already developing their own policies, which will complement the overarching policy that Commerce has already developed for all of its components. But the 19 policies received by OSTP last week—along with three others that are going through agency clearances and are expected to be delivered to OSTP soon—cover all the Federal entities described by OSTP in its April 21st update.

Dr. Holdren’s latest directive of May 5 had asked that agencies and departments submit drafts of their policies by last week. However, five Federal entities went further and submitted final policies. The five were NASA (with plans to make modest changes by fall); the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and Interior (which had finished and submitted its policy earlier this year); and the Intelligence Communities represented by the Director of National Intelligence.

OSTP also received 13 draft policies—from NOAA; the National Science Foundation; the Environmental Protection Agency; the Social Security Administration; the Veterans Administration; and the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Education, Energy, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, Labor, and Transportation.

In addition, OSTP has crafted a draft policy that would apply to its activities and is under consideration for adoption by the Council on Environmental Quality. OSTP is also working with the Office of Management and Budget to ensure that all relevant offices within the Executive Office of the President will be covered by an appropriate policy.

Finally, the Department of State and the US Agency for International Development have notified OSTP that their respective draft policies are in clearance and will be submitted soon, while Commerce has notified OSTP that NIST’s policy is under development.

OSTP appreciates the hard work agencies and departments have devoted to the important task of codifying their commitments to scientific integrity, and will be working with them this fall as they finalize their policies. At the same time, it’s important to remember that scientific integrity has been a firm commitment from the earliest days of this Administration—as evidenced by the President’s 2009 memorandum, which expressed the basic principles of integrity expected of all agencies, as well as by the extraordinary scientists the Administration has brought on board, the budgets it has proposed, and the evidence-based policies it has supported.

The steps taken by these departments and agencies are a big step forward to ensuring scientific integrity across the Federal government.

First Lady Michelle Obama participates in a Math and Science Bowl at Fountain-Fort Carson High School in Colorado Springs, Colo., April 14, 2011. The First Lady and Dr. Biden attended the event to help bring awareness to the need for advanced placement courses in math and science at schools like Fountain-Fort Carson, which serves many military children. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

It’s the ultimate military family battle, and it’s happening today at Fountain-Fort Carson High School in Colorado Springs. On one side are the parents—military personnel based at nearby Fort Carson. Challenging them are their kids—students at the high school, where about half the student population consists of military family children. And overseeing the battle—actually a parents-against-kids math and science competition—are First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden, with a few scholarly pyrotechnics thrown in by Jamie Hyneman and Grant Imahara from the Discovery Channel program MythBusters.

The event, sponsored in part by National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI), is part of a new White House initiative, Joining Forces, aimed at supporting and honoring America’s service members and their families. Launched at the White House on Tuesday, the initiative is focusing on a number of key areas including: beefing up science and math education at schools heavily populated by students from military families; improving health for military families; and focusing on training and jobs for members of the military and veterans.

First Lady Michelle Obama participates in a Math and Science Bowl at Fountain-Fort Carson High School in Colorado Springs, Colo., April 14, 2011. The First Lady and Dr. Biden attended the event to help bring awareness to the need for advanced placement courses in math and science at schools like Fountain-Fort Carson, which serves many military children. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

]]>The First LadyDr. Jill BidenEducationChuck KennedyColoradoColorado SpringsGrant ImaharaJamie HynemanJill BidenKentuckyMichelle ObamaRick WeissTexasJoining ForcesFri, 15 Apr 2011 13:59:07 +0000<a href="/blog/author/Rick Weiss" class="author-name">Rick Weiss</a>36164 at https://www.whitehouse.govBig Thanks to Leader of Small Sciencehttps://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/04/14/big-thanks-leader-small-science
Eight years ago this week, E. Clayton Teague took leave from his position at the National Institute of Standards and Technology to take the reins of the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office. That’s the office that oversees the interagency process through which the United States ensures that its investments in nanotechnology—the promising field of the extremely small—are appropriately interwoven so as to accelerate the science and boost the Nation’s economy.

It was a one-year assignment, which got extended to two, and then three, and then just kept going. Such is the fate of a public-service scientist-administrator who gets swept up in a fast-moving field of science with direct impacts on energy, electronics, materials science, optics, food and medicine, and national security, to mention just a few.

Tomorrow, Clayton will step down as Director of the NNCO, an office that is overseen here at OSTP via the National Science and Technology Council. During his tenure, the interagency nanotechnology research program he oversaw—the National Nanotechnology Initiative, or NNI—grew from a modest experiment in shared investments by a handful of agencies to the booming model of interagency cooperation that it is today, involving 25 agencies and departments and with cumulative investments of some $14 billion in nanoscale science and engineering.

Clayton hit the ground running in 2003, being called upon to testify before a Senate committee within weeks of his appointment (the first of several such hearings over the years). He leaves without ever decelerating; today, on his penultimate day at NNCO, he made an appearance before the House Subcommittee on Research and Science Education, where he described the great distance nanotechnology has come in recent years and the progress it is expected to make in the years ahead, as summarized in the most recent edition of the NNI Strategic Plan.

Thanks, Clayton, for all your work. It will be difficult for the smallest science to fill those big shoes.

First Lady Michelle Obama participates in a Math and Science Bowl at Fountain-Fort Carson High School in Colorado Springs, Colo., April 14, 2011. The First Lady and Dr. Biden attended the event to help bring awareness to the need for advanced placement courses in math and science at schools like Fountain-Fort Carson, which serves many military children. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

It’s the ultimate military family battle, and it’s happening today at Fountain-Fort Carson High School in Colorado Springs. On one side are the parents—military personnel based at nearby Fort Carson. Challenging them are their kids—students at the high school, where about half the student population consists of military family children. And overseeing the battle—actually a parents-against-kids math and science competition—are First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden, with a few scholarly pyrotechnics thrown in by Jamie Hyneman and Grant Imahara from the Discovery Channel program MythBusters.

The event, sponsored in part by National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI), is part of a new White House initiative, Joining Forces, aimed at supporting and honoring America’s service members and their families. Launched at the White House on Tuesday, the initiative is focusing on a number of key areas including: beefing up science and math education at schools heavily populated by students from military families; improving health for military families; and focusing on training and jobs for members of the military and veterans.

First Lady Michelle Obama participates in a Math and Science Bowl at Fountain-Fort Carson High School in Colorado Springs, Colo., April 14, 2011. The First Lady and Dr. Biden attended the event to help bring awareness to the need for advanced placement courses in math and science at schools like Fountain-Fort Carson, which serves many military children. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

]]>DefenseEducationChuck KennedyColoradoColorado SpringsGrant ImaharaJamie HynemanJill BidenKentuckyMichelle ObamaRick WeissTexasThu, 14 Apr 2011 15:54:29 +0000<a href="/blog/author/Rick Weiss" class="author-name">Rick Weiss</a>35845 at https://www.whitehouse.govU.S., China Extend Science and Technology Agreementhttps://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/01/19/us-china-extend-science-and-technology-agreement
Today, in the ornate Secretary of War Room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next door to the White House, OSTP Director John P. Holdren and the Minister of Science and Technology for the People’s Republic of China, Wan Gang, took pens to paper and signed an historic extension to the U.S.-China Agreement on Cooperation in Science and Technology. The newly extended agreement will foster a continuation of decades of cooperative endeavors that have encompassed such domains as agricultural science, high-energy physics, clean energy, and biomedical research.

The symbolism of signing the accord for peaceful collaboration in a room once used to plan wars was apt, Dr. Holdren said, noting that the Science and Technology Agreement was the first bilateral accord signed by the two countries after relations were normalized in 1979. In that year, U.S. President Jimmy Carter sat down with Chinese Premier Deng Xiaoping and agreed that the realms of science and engineering provided a natural common ground upon which the two nations could build mutual trust and broader bilateral relations.

In the 32 years since that agreement was signed, an enormous amount of scientific and technological collaboration has been achieved—some of it accomplished by Dr. Holdren and Minister Wan, who as academics in the early 2000s worked together from their respective universities, Harvard and Tongji. In those days, Wan said at today’s ceremony, the two never imagined that years later they would be serving as science and technology advisors to the presidents of their two countries, and signing a formal agreement to extend decades of progress well into the 21st Century.

Some of the many shared achievements cultivated by the original Agreement can be seen here.

OSTP Director John P. Holdren and the Minister of Science and Technology for the People’s Republic of China Wan Gang sign an historic extension to the U.S.-China Agreement on Cooperation in Science and Technology on January 19, 2011.

OSTP Director John P. Holdren and the Minister of Science and Technology for the People’s Republic of China Wan Gang hold a photograph of U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Chinese Premier Deng Xiaoping signing the original U.S.-China Agreement on Cooperation in Science and Technology in 1979.

Reflecting input from industry and IT experts, privacy groups, healthcare professionals, and others, the report calls upon the Federal government to facilitate the widespread adoption of a “universal exchange language” that would allow the transfer of pieces of health data while maximizing privacy. Such a system would allow people’s health data to follow them wherever they go, and help physicians provide the highest possible level of care, while giving patients unprecedented control over who has access to their information. At the same time, it can save the Nation money by increasing efficiency and reducing redundancy.

Importantly, implementation of PCAST’s recommendations would not require physicians to replace their existing electronic health records systems, virtually all of which could be made compatible through “apps” and other “middleware.” And they do not call for creation of a centralized Federal database of people’s health information or the assigning of Federal healthcare identifier numbers to individuals.

To help implement its recommendations, the report calls upon ONC and CMS to create appropriate definitions of “meaningful use” as they craft standards for health information technology, which under law must be achieved in stages by 2013 and 2015. It also calls upon CMS to accelerate the modernization and restructuring of its IT platforms and staff expertise.

Abbott made the announcement in Beijing, where she is leading the U.S. delegation and serving as co-chair for the Seventh Plenary meeting of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), a voluntary partnership of governments and international organizations committed to implementing a coordinated response to global environmental stresses.

SilvaCarbon, named after the Latin word for forest, will bring together a community of U.S. scientists and technical experts from government, academia, non-governmental organizations, and industry into a network that will support efforts to improve access to Earth observation data about forests. It is a key element in the Administration’s comprehensive strategy for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and enhancing forest carbon stocks in developing countries.

“The science of how forests store carbon, both above ground and in the soil, is of profound importance and requires further monitoring and investigation,” Abbott said. “We want to cooperate more closely with our partners in GEO in this area, to protect and make most effective use of our forests, to avoid harmful deforestation and land-degradation, and to better understand how forests store and release carbon and other greenhouse gases.”

]]>Energy and EnvironmentBeijingRick WeissU.S.Wed, 03 Nov 2010 13:39:40 +0000<a href="/blog/author/Rick Weiss" class="author-name">Rick Weiss</a>22679 at https://www.whitehouse.govCelebrating Science and Engineering on the National Mallhttps://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/25/celebrating-science-engineering-national-mall
After joining President Obama in welcoming students to the White House Science Fair last Monday, OSTP Director John P. Holdren spent Saturday morning with fellow OSTP staffers and an estimated half-a-million other visitors on the National Mall, reveling in the USA Science and Engineering Festival. Under beautiful blue skies, science, mathematics, and engineering literally had their day in the sun, with more than 1,000 displays and demonstrations that educated, entertained, and inspired children and adults alike.

Within minutes of our arrival at the Festival we came upon a familiar figure: Thomas Alva Edison, or at least a close facsimile, in the person of Frank Attwood, an Orlando-based self-described “actorpreneur.” Toting a tattered brown briefcase and with an ancient phonograph in tow, Attwood was buttonholing visitors and regaling them with tales of the all-American inventor, who so personified the kind of innovation that today continues to undergird our Nation’s social and economic strength.

]]>White HouseEducationTechnologyAlaskaBill NyeFrank AttwoodJohn GrunsfeldJohn P. HoldrenObamaOrlandoPhil LarsonRick WeissThomas Alva EdisonWASHINGTONMon, 25 Oct 2010 19:59:51 +0000<a href="/blog/author/Rick Weiss" class="author-name">Rick Weiss</a>22386 at https://www.whitehouse.govU.S. Research Nabs Chemistry Nobelhttps://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/06/us-research-nabs-chemistry-nobel
An American chemist, and a Japanese chemist who has lived and worked in the United States for the past 50 years, were among those named today as winners of this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Richard Heck, an American who did much of his work at the University of Delaware, was awarded the prize, along with Ei-ichi Negishi, a Japanese citizen who has long been affiliated with Purdue University in Indiana, and Akira Suzuki of Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan.

The three are sharing this year’s prize for their development of laboratory methods that help chemists build complex molecules out of carbon atoms. Specifically, these methods allow scientists to attach carbon atoms to one another in precise configurations more efficiently than was previously possible. This process is called “palladium-catalyzed cross coupling” because it uses the element palladium to get normally reclusive carbon atoms to react with one another.

Palladium-catalyzed cross coupling is used in research worldwide, as well as in the commercial production of pharmaceuticals and to make molecules that are used in the electronics industry. The so-called Heck's reaction in particular has been used to synthesize such compounds as morphine; the cancer drug Taxol; a widely used herbicide; certain steroid hormones; and the poison strychnine.

Heck worked at Hercules Co., in Wilmington, DE—a producer of adhesives and other organic chemicals—in the 1950s, then moved to the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Delaware in 1971, where he remained until retiring in 1989. While at the University, his work was supported with more than $500,000 in research grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The Nobel committee’s recognition of the importance of his accomplishments and their great value to society is a wonderful reminder of the value of these and other Federal investments in basic research.

Co-winner Negishi came to the University of Pennsylvania on a Fulbright Scholarship and obtained his Ph.D. degree in 1963. He did a postdoc at Purdue University starting in 1966, after which he took a position at Syracuse University in 1972. In 1979 he was invited back to Purdue University as a full professor.

The eponymous Negishi reaction is used as a central step in the synthesis of laboratory-produced discodermolide, a poison created in nature by a marine sponge that attacks cancer cells in the same manner as Taxol—one of the world’s most frequently used cancer drugs—and may someday be used as a chemotherapy drug. Negishi has received approximately $3.5 million in funding from the NSF and the National Institutes of Health.

Congratulations to the winners, and to the Federal agencies and peer reviewers who recognized the seminal value of their work early on!

Rick Weiss is Director of Strategic Communications and a Senior Policy Analyst in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

]]>TechnologyAkira SuzukiDelawareIndianaJapanPennsylvaniaRichard HeckRick WeissUnited StatesWilmingtonWed, 06 Oct 2010 16:39:03 +0000<a href="/blog/author/Rick Weiss" class="author-name">Rick Weiss</a>21760 at https://www.whitehouse.govNational Ocean Council Gathers Steamhttps://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/09/24/national-ocean-council-gathers-steam
What singular set of global resources can provide jobs, food, energy, ecological services, recreation, and tourism while also playing a critical role in transportation, trade, and national security? The answer, as explained in an Executive Order signed by President Obama this summer, is the world’s oceans, our Nation’s coasts, and the Great Lakes. That Order created the National Ocean Council, whose Deputies met for the first time today in the latest move toward implementing—as ordered by the President—the recommendations of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force and developing coastal and marine spatial plans that will build upon and improve existing Federal, State, tribal, local, and regional planning processes. To learn more, check out the National Ocean Council site and today’s blog post by the Council’s co-chairs, OSTP Director John Holdren and Council on Environmental Quality chair Nancy Sutley.

Rick Weiss is Director of Strategic Communications and Senior Science and Technology Policy Analyst at the Office of Science and Technology Policy

]]>Energy and EnvironmentJohn HoldrenNancy SutleyRick WeissFri, 24 Sep 2010 23:54:35 +0000<a href="/blog/author/Rick Weiss" class="author-name">Rick Weiss</a>21291 at https://www.whitehouse.govAutomotive X-Prize Embodies Administration's Focus on Innovationhttps://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/09/17/automotive-x-prize-embodies-administrations-focus-innovation
OSTP Director John P. Holdren yesterday participated in an awards ceremony for the Progressive Automotive X Prize, a public-private challenge in which a total of $10 million in prizes was awarded to three teams that created production‐capable vehicles with energy-efficiency equivalence ratings of at least 100 miles per gallon.

Established automakers, start‐ups, universities, independent inventors, and even a high school team were among the 111 teams that entered the competition, which was sponsored in part by the Department of Energy. Dr. Holdren announced the winning team in the “Alternative, Side-by-Side Seating” class: The Mooresville, N.C.-based “Li-ion” Team, short for lithium ion, which is the kind of battery that powers this elegant, all-electric vehicle.

In tandem with important aerodynamic features that enabled it to achieve 182 MPGe in on-track testing, this vehicle also accelerates from zero to 60 mph in just 14.7 seconds and boasts a range of more than 100 miles in realistic driving.

As Dr. Holdren noted during the ceremony, the Progressive Automotive X Prize embodies much of what President Obama has said over the past year about the value of using prizes and challenges as a way of tapping the ingenuity of citizen solvers to meet the many challenges today facing the Nation.

“The President knows that the challenges we face today—challenges relating to energy, the environment, agriculture, and national security—are simply too big for government or the usual private-sector problem-solvers to solve alone. We need all hands on deck,” he said. “That is why it is so inspiring to see that the teams honored here today are entrepreneurs outside the circle of “usual suspects” in the auto industry. One telltale sign of that is that the Li-ion Motors team is from North Carolina—which no one can really think of as a suburb of Detroit.”

In September 2009, the President announced his Strategy for American Innovation, in which he called upon agencies to increase their ability to promote and harness innovation by using tools such as prizes and challenges to solve tough problems. In March 2010 the White House Office of Management and Budget issued a memorandum to all agency heads affirming the Administration’s commitment to this approach and providing a policy and legal framework to guide agencies in using prizes to stimulate innovation to advance their core missions.

And just last week, the White House unveiledChallenge.gov, a new online platform where entrepreneurs, innovators, and citizen solvers can compete for prestige and prizes by providing novel solutions to tough national problems, large and small. Check it out, and see if there is a problem you might be able to solve!

Congratulations to the Li-ion team and all the Automotive X Prize winners celebrated today.

]]>TechnologyDetroitJohn P. HoldrenMooresvilleNorth CarolinaRick WeissWashington, DCFri, 17 Sep 2010 12:37:32 +0000<a href="/blog/author/Rick Weiss" class="author-name">Rick Weiss</a>20888 at https://www.whitehouse.govU.S., China Science and Tech Leaders Convene on Innovationhttps://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/07/20/us-china-science-and-tech-leaders-convene-innovation
OSTP Director John P. Holdren today led a meeting with government leaders from the United States and the People’s Republic of China—including Mr. Wan Gang, China’s Minister of Science and Technology—to discuss a range of issues relating to the advancement of innovation. The meeting, held at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, marked the launch of an “innovation dialogue” as agreed to at the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue that took place in Beijing in May. It also set the stage for future high- and expert-level discussions on innovation policies.

Dr. Holdren was joined by Robert Hormats, Under Secretary of State; Demetrios Marantis, Deputy U.S. Trade Representative; Marisa Lago, Assistant Secretary at the Department of Treasury, Kerri-Ann Jones, Assistant Secretary of State; Steve Jacobs, Acting Assistant Secretary at the Department of Commerce; and representatives of U.S. science agencies.

Minister Wan was joined by Ministry of Science and Technology officials and the Washington-based representatives of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Finance, and the Embassy.

OSTP Director John P. Holdren leads a meeting with government leaders from the United States and the People’s Republic of China to discuss a range of issues relating to the advancement of innovation.

The Office of Science and Technology Policy yesterday convened a conference celebrating the one-year anniversary of President Obama’s momentous remarks in Cairo that called for increased partnerships with the Muslim world. Science and technology collaborations have played a critical role in developing the new relationships the President called for. And the number of productive exchanges between Federal agencies and their counterparts in Muslim communities around the world has grown considerably in the past year, said OSTP Director John Holdren.

“Almost a year to the day after President Obama made his historic commitment in Cairo to embark on a voyage of renewed engagement with the Muslim world, there is much progress to be proud of and much to celebrate,” said Holdren, speaking to about 150 representatives from embassies, non-governmental organizations, and Federal science agencies at the National Academies’ Keck Center in Washington, DC.

Other speakers at the event—which highlighted accomplishments in the past year and looked ahead to new commitments—included Ralph J. Cicerone, President of the National Academy of Sciences; Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.); Maria Otero, Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs; Harold Varmus, co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology; and General James L. Jones, National Security Advisor to the President.

The event also featured presentations from the Nation’s first three “science envoys,” who were deployed around the globe during the past year to help build connections to scientists and engineers and their institutions in the Muslim world: Elias Zerhouni, former director of the National Institutes of Health; Nobel Prize-winning chemist Ahmed Zewail; and Bruce Alberts, Editor-in-Chief of the journal Science. They were introduced by diplomatic officials from three of the more than ten countries they visited in the past year: Ambassador Sameh Shoukry, the Ambassador of Egypt to the United States; Ambassador Abdallah Baali, Ambassador of Algeria to the United States; and T.H. Salman Al Farisi, Acting Charde d’Affairs of Indonesia.

Among the envoy’s comments:

“We were welcomed everywhere," said science envoy Ahmed Zewail, who traveled to Turkey, Egypt, Qatar, and Dubai. Zewail spoke of the importance of improving educational opportunities in Muslim-majority countries and emphasized that there is a great hunger for better education in these nations. The heritage and culture of the Muslim world strongly promote education and intellectual development, he said, "despite what you read sometimes in the media."

"The message of the President in his Cairo speech ... resonated very forcefully" with people in every country we visited, said science envoy Elias Zerhouni. Of course, Zerhouni said, there is still mistrust in some quarters. "We welcome the new beginning," people told him on his travels. "The problem is follow-through." In the past, people told him, Memoranda of Understanding have been signed but not always implemented, leading to what Zerhouni called "MOU fatigue." The good news, Zerhouni said, is that he got a strong sense in his travels that President Obama is seen as taking such commitments seriously. "I think the President has moved the needle," Zerhouni said.

Science envoy Bruce Alberts reiterated the high regard with which the Muslim world holds the US science and technology enterprise. Indeed, he said, one thing young scientists in Indonesia said they wanted most from the United States is help modeling a merit-based system of science and technology funding like the one in America, which is renowned around the world for how effectively it has rewarded the very best science. "We take that for granted in the United States," Alberts said, "but there is almost no competitive science funding in Indonesia." Now is a great opportunity to provide such guidance, he added, as the Indonesian government has committed to increasing its investment in research and development.

Dr. Holdren noted that efforts like the President’s Cairo initiative cannot change the world immediately, but over a period of years can have a big impact. “The path will have some twists and turns and we cannot expect attitudes to wholly reverse themselves in a year or even two,” Dr. Holdren said. “But they can shift. And they must—both here and abroad. The important thing is to keep going.”

For more information on how we are pursuing the vision articulated by President Obama in Cairo last June, including a list of major accomplishments, visit OSTP's Global Science Diplomacy page.

]]>New BeginningForeign PolicyAbdallah BaaliAhmed ZewailAlgeriaAmericaBruce AlbertsCairoDubaiDubaiEgyptElias ZerhouniH. Salman Al FarisiHarold VarmusIndonesiaJames L. JonesJohn P. HoldrenMaria OteroNew JerseyPhil LarsonQatarRalph J. CiceroneRick WeissRush HoltSameh ShoukryTurkeyUnited StatesWashington, DCWed, 09 Jun 2010 14:29:10 +0000<a href="/blog/author/Rick Weiss" class="author-name">Rick Weiss</a>13052 at https://www.whitehouse.govClimate Adaptation Summit This Weekhttps://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/05/24/climate-adaptation-summit-week
Last spring, OSTP Director John P. Holdren called upon the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research to work with OSTP to host a summit to improve planning and communications among the range entities currently laying plans to adapt to climate change. That Summit will take place this week—May 25 to 27—and will bring together about 150 invited users and providers of climate adaptation information from diverse climatological regions and economic sectors to provide insight into:

what is needed for effective climate adaptation and vulnerability assessments,

how the nation should be organized in the public (federal and local) and private sectors.

The summit is not intended to debate what climate change will and won’t look like. Rather, using the best available information about projected climate change and impacts, the meeting participants will be asked to examine needs, knowledge, and appropriate roles to help this national planning effort in the near-term and long-term. The insights from this meeting will be incorporated into Federal climate adaptation programs and research planning. For more information, see the Media Advisory.

]]>Energy and EnvironmentClimateJohn P. HoldrenRick WeissMon, 24 May 2010 15:48:58 +0000<a href="/blog/author/Rick Weiss" class="author-name">Rick Weiss</a>12457 at https://www.whitehouse.govOSTP Director Holdren Speaks Out for Girls in Science, Math, and Engineeringhttps://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/04/30/ostp-director-holdren-speaks-out-girls-science-and-engineering
OSTP Director John Holdren today participated in a roundtable discussion about gender equity in math and science education, organized by Sally Ride, the first American woman in space. The event, held at the Willard Hotel and moderated by NBC Capitol Hill Correspondent Kelly O’Donnell, was designed to bring together luminaries from the education, business, and policymaking arenas to discuss the critical need for students, particularly girls, to pursue studies and careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Dr. Ride is President and CEO of Sally Ride Science, a science education company that creates programs and products for students and teachers in elementary and middle school. As America’s first woman in space (she flew twice, first in 1983 aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger and again aboard Challenger in 1984) and as the first director of NASA’s Office of Exploration, Dr. Ride has a longstanding interest in encouraging girls to pursue coursework and careers in science and engineering.

Other participants in the discussion included Dr. Laurie Leshin, NASA’s Deputy Director for Science and Technology, and Dr. Cora Marrett, Acting Deputy Director of the National Science Foundation.

In the 4th grade, panelists noted, the number of girls and boys who say they like math and science is about the same. By 8th grade, twice as many boys as girls show an interest in these subjects. Much of the discussion focused on the need for more female role models in science and engineering. Studies suggest that because of the lack of female scientist role models in the media, many girls do not see themselves as "doers" of science.

“We need to step up our efforts in science, technology, engineering, and math education in this country, capturing and holding the interest in these subjects of more girls and boys alike,” said Dr. Holdren, the sole holder of a Y chromosome on the panel. “Getting this done is one of President Obama’s highest priorities.”

The panel capped a week of high-profile meetings for the OSTP Director. On Thursday he co-chaired, with Russian Minister of Education and Science Andrey Fursenko, the first full-committee meeting of the Science and Technology Working Group under the US-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission. Fursenko brought a delegation that included Ambassador Edward Malayan from the Foreign Ministry. The U.S. delegation included officials from the Departments of Energy, State, Commerce/NOAA, and Interior/USGS, as well as the NSF, NASA, and others.

On Tuesday Dr. Holdren gave the opening keynote address at a strategic planning meeting that engaged leaders from the 13 participating agencies of the U.S. Global Change Research Program, to discuss in part ongoing efforts to strengthen Administration activities in the domains of climate observations and assessment, adaptation research and planning, and climate services.

]]>EducationTechnologyWomenAmericaAndrey FursenkoCora MarrettEdward MalayanJohn HoldrenLaurie LeshinRick WeissRussiaSally RideFri, 30 Apr 2010 20:46:55 +0000<a href="/blog/author/Rick Weiss" class="author-name">Rick Weiss</a>11707 at https://www.whitehouse.govFlat Stanley Drops in on OSTPhttps://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/04/30/flat-stanley-drops-ostp
OSTP Director John Holdren took time out from his busy schedule to meet with an unusual visitor this week—Flat Stanley. Stanley is one of many Flat Stanleys traveling the world as part of the Flat Stanley Project, which was launched in 1995 as a means of encouraging third-grade students to correspond with one another by mail. The Project has since blossomed into a viral, global, online phenomenon through which Flat Stanley (or reasonable facsimiles) has visited and been photographed at countless destinations around the world.

Although Stanley got some face time with President Obama a while ago, he has never had an audience with the President’s science advisor. That changed the other day when Stan came to the Nation’s capital during his spring break, with traveling companion Daniel Grossfeld from Miss Groia’s second grade class at Unqua Elementary School in Massapequa, New York.

Here Dr. Holdren, who holds degrees in aerospace engineering and theoretical plasma physics from MIT and Stanford, discusses with Stanley what it is like to exist in a space-time continuum more complex than the one to which this well-traveled but ultimately two-dimensional character is relegated.

]]>EducationDaniel GrossfeldJohn HoldrenMassapequaNew YorkPhil LarsonRick WeissFri, 30 Apr 2010 18:07:48 +0000<a href="/blog/author/Rick Weiss" class="author-name">Rick Weiss</a>11697 at https://www.whitehouse.govOSTP Celebrates Earth Day 2010 with Public Lecture, New GLOBE Reporthttps://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/04/22/ostp-celebrates-earth-day-2010-with-public-lecture-new-globe-report
OSTP Director John P. Holdren will give a free public lecture at the University of California, Berkeley, this evening as part of the White House’s celebration of Earth Day 2010. Dr. Holdren’s talk, "Science and Technology for Sustainable Well-Being: Priorities and Policies in the Obama Administration," will highlight Administration initiatives that are addressing the pressing economic, environmental, energy-, and climate-related challenges facing the Nation today.

Dr. Holdren will also note that today marks not only the 40th anniversary of Earth Day but also the 15th anniversary of a Federal program that embodies the central principles of Earth Day—the Global Learning & Observations to Benefit the Environment, or “GLOBE,” program. OSTP today released a new report that affirms the many benefits of that environmental education program—launched on Earth Day 1995—and lays out a map for future accomplishments.

GLOBE is a worldwide primary- and secondary-school-based science and education program designed to open up the world of scientific discovery to students by getting them into the field to make actual environmental measurements, such as air temperature, waterway acidity, and sunlight intensity. Since its launch in 1995, the program has grown to connect—in an enormous data-sharing network—more than 20,000 schools in 112 countries.

Students in GLOBE schools, along with the 50,000 teachers that GLOBE has trained in those schools, have collected and uploaded more than 20 million environmental and climate measurements in the past 15 years—a data set that is openly available for collaborative scientific research by students and professional scientists alike.

“GLOBE is an important tool for educating the next generation of climate and environmental scientists, giving students the opportunity to share in the excitement of scientific discovery in their own backyards,” Dr. Holdren said.

The new report, produced by OSTP, reaffirms the value of GLOBE as part of the Obama Administration’s commitment to science education and environmental stewardship and lays out important goals for the years ahead—in particular an enhanced focus on climate education that focuses on global warming, the carbon and energy footprint, climate and human health, and ecosystems, agriculture, and biodiversity.

GLOBE is just one element in an array of programs and activities being supported by the Administration in the domain of environmental science and education, many of which are highlighted on a special Earth Day website launched this week by the White House

]]>Energy and EnvironmentTechnologyCaliforniaClimateJohn P. HoldrenRick WeissThu, 22 Apr 2010 16:11:24 +0000<a href="/blog/author/Rick Weiss" class="author-name">Rick Weiss</a>11315 at https://www.whitehouse.govOSTP Director Holdren Keynotes Engineering Academy Summithttps://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/04/22/ostp-director-holdren-keynotes-engineering-academy-summit
OSTP Director John Holdren was a keynote speaker yesterday at the National Academy of Engineering’s “Grand Challenges for the 21st Century” Summit held in Chicago. The Summit focused on the topics of clean water; carbon, energy, and climate; urban sustainability; and global health—four of the 14 “Grand Challenges” recently identified by the Academy as requiring immediate attention by scientists, engineers, and policy makers.

The Academy selected keynote speakers for their expertise and ability “to provide a deep understanding of the current situation and … an analysis of the problems and potential solutions.” Dr. Holdren keynoted the session on challenges relating to carbon, energy, and climate. His PowerPoint presentation is available here (pdf).

From the session abstract:

Humans have long confronted the pollution created by the use of energy. The current challenge is not only the visible soot from wood and coal fires, or smog from poorly combusted gasoline and diesel, which affects human health in direct and obvious ways, but also invisible greenhouse gases, which do not directly affect human health but will impact our environment significantly.

Carbon emission contributes to global warming and climate changes affecting our water supply and quality. The impact of increasing atmospheric carbon is widely recognized, but diminution of human emissions of carbon will either require a difficult decrease in our use of fossil fuels or significant scientific and technological breakthroughs.

The increase in atmospheric carbon represents a generational challenge of global importance.

]]>TechnologyChicagoJohn HoldrenRick WeissThu, 22 Apr 2010 15:12:19 +0000<a href="/blog/author/Rick Weiss" class="author-name">Rick Weiss</a>11317 at https://www.whitehouse.govPresident Announces Choices for New Bioethics Commissionhttps://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/04/08/president-announces-choices-new-bioethics-commission
President Obama yesterday released the names of ten individuals whom he intends to appoint to the recently created Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. The ten will join the previously named chair and vice chair—University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann and Emory University President James Wagner—in exploring bioethical issues anticipated to emerge from advances in biomedicine and related areas of science and technology. In a statement released with the names of the new Commissioners, the President said; “I am grateful that these impressive individuals have decided to dedicate their talent and experience to this important Commission. I look forward to their recommendations in the coming months and years.”

The new Commission differs in several ways from bioethics commissions created by previous Administrations. First, according to the terms of Executive Order (pdf) that created the new Commission, it is limited to a maximum of 13 people (with a total of 12 now named, President Obama has the option of appointing one more at a later date). That’s a smaller number than previous commissions, in part to keep the group nimble and facilitate discussion and consensus building.

Second, the Commission is tasked specifically with the goal of making practical, policy-oriented, ethics-based recommendations to the President, rather than devoting much of its time engaged in arcane philosophical discussions. Related to that goal, the Commission includes three members with science and bioethics expertise who work for Federal agencies—a significant shift from usual practice and one that is expected to help the group as it strives to provide advice that can be implemented in practical ways within the complex framework of Federal policymaking processes and procedures.

Third, the selected Commissioners are highly diverse in terms of professional backgrounds, geography, and experience. In a break from past practice, most are not professional bioethicists, but rather have worked and demonstrated extraordinary proficiency in an array of fields burdened with difficult challenges at the intersection of science, technology, and ethics. And although the Commission bears the word “bioethics” in its name, some members—including the vice chair—were selected in part because of their familiarity with ethics challenges raised technology as much as by biology. That reflects a growing society-wide recognition that many of today’s most difficult decisions at the boundaries of science and society are not just about biology and medicine but involve hardware, software and related technologies such as robotics.

Christine Grady, Acting Chief of the Department of Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center

Stephen L. Hauser, Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurology at the University of California – San Francisco

Raju Kucherlapati, Professor in the Harvard Medical School Department of Genetics and in the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital

Nelson Michael, Director of the Division of Retrovirology at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and the Director, U.S. Military HIV Research program

Daniel Sulmasy, a Franciscan Friar and associate director of the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago

]]>EthicsTechnologyAlexander G. GarzaAmy GutmannAnita L. AllenBarbara AtkinsonCaliforniaChristine GradyDaniel SulmasyJames WagnerKansasLonnie AliMuhammad AliNelson MichaelNita A. FarahanyPennsylvaniaRaju KucherlapatiRick WeissSan FranciscoStephen L. HauserUnited StatesThu, 08 Apr 2010 21:09:12 +0000<a href="/blog/author/Rick Weiss" class="author-name">Rick Weiss</a>10784 at https://www.whitehouse.govOSTP Director Holdren Teaches Classes, Gives Lecture at University of Michiganhttps://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/03/23/ostp-director-holdren-teaches-class-gives-lecture-university-michigan
OSTP Director John P. Holdren just returned from an intensive day-and-a-half visit to the University of Michigan, where he taught classes, spoke to the university’s president as well as two vice presidents and several deans, and gave a heavily attended public lecture about the Obama Administration’s science and technology priorities.

The public event was on Monday night, when Dr. Holdren had the honor of delivering the annual Peter M. Wege Lecture, which took place before an audience of almost 1,000 people in the University’s Rackham Hall. The webcast is available here.

Earlier that day Dr. Holdren was the guest lecturer in Engineering 101: Introduction to Computers and Programming; was the guest speaker in a cross-disciplinary class of Master’s students; and delivered a guest lecture to a special combined session of two classes in the university’s School of Natural Resources and Environment—Behavior and Environment: The Psychology of Human-Environment Interaction, and a sister course in Industrial Ecology. Finally, on Tuesday, Dr. Holdren participated in a roundtable discussion featuring university researchers and conducted a Question and Answer session with students entitled “Beyond Sputnik: National Science Policy in the 21st Century.”

It was a great opportunity to share what’s happening in Washington in the domain of science and engineering policy and the Administration’s economic and innovation agenda with students, faculty, and officials at one of the Nation’s largest research universities.

]]>EducationTechnologyJohn P. HoldrenMichiganPeter M. Wege LectureRick WeissWASHINGTONTue, 23 Mar 2010 20:43:55 +0000<a href="/blog/author/Rick Weiss" class="author-name">Rick Weiss</a>10210 at https://www.whitehouse.govHonoring Scientists and Engineershttps://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/01/14/honoring-scientists-and-engineers
We hear a lot about Nobel Prize-winning scientists, and there are kudos galore for those august winners of the National Medal of Science and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, such as those honored by President Obama in October. But where do these great innovators come from? How did they get to their vaunted stations in life?

President Barack Obama talks with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) winners in the East Room of the White House, Jan. 13, 2010.
January 13, 2010.
(Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

That’s the focus of a prestigious Presidential award that was in the spotlight Wednesday in the East Room of the White House, when the President honored 100 winners of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest award bestowed by the U.S. Government upon scientists and engineers in the early stages of their independent research careers.

The President’s meeting with the PECASE winners showcased this Administration’s recognition that America’s global leadership in science and technology is not automatic, but depends on constantly cultivating new generations of ambitious and dedicated explorers in the sciences and engineering. And of course that national nourishing of curiosity starts even earlier than that, in the way we teach children about science, technology, engineering and mathematics. That’s why this event resonates strongly with those of last week, when the President announced an expansion of the “Educate to Innovate” campaign to encourage and inspire young students to pursue studies in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

Nine Federal departments and agencies join together annually to nominate the most meritorious young scientists and engineers for PECASE -- researchers whose early accomplishments show the greatest promise for strengthening America’s leadership in science and technology and contributing to the awarding agencies' missions. The awards are coordinated by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, with awardees selected on the basis of two criteria: Pursuit of innovative research at the frontiers of science and technology and a commitment to community service, as demonstrated through scientific leadership, public education, or community outreach. Winners receive up to a five-year research grant to further their study in support of critical government missions.

This year’s recipients were first announced over the summer and received their awards and met with the President Wednesday. Their names and Federal Departments and Agencies can be seen in the official White House press release.

Rick Weiss is Director of Strategic Communications and a Senior Policy Analyst at the Office of Science and Technology Policy

It is one thing to talk about the philosophy of public access and open government generally, and quite another to get serious about how, exactly, to implement some of those ideas. So through the waning hours of 2009—until midnight of Dec. 31, that is—OSTP is inviting you to weigh in on some of the nuts and bolts aspects of public access publishing. Among the questions we hope you will address:

In what format should published papers be submitted in order to make them easy to find, retrieve, and search and to make it easy for others to link to them?

Are there existing digital standards for archiving and interoperability to maximize public benefit?

How are these anticipated to change?

Are there formats that would be especially useful to researchers wishing to combine datasets or other published results published from various papers in order to conduct comparative studies or meta-analyses?

What are the best examples of usability in the private sector (both domestic and international) and what makes them exceptional?

Should those who access papers be given the opportunity to comment or provide feedback?

What are the anticipated costs of maintaining publicly accessible libraries of available papers, and how might various public access business models affect these maintenance costs?

By what metrics (e.g. number of articles or visitors) should the Federal government measure success of its public access collections?

On Jan. 1 we will move to Phase Three of this discussion, which will focus on questions of Management. That discussion was originally scheduled to run through Jan. 7. However, we have heard from many of you that the scheduling of this forum has posed difficulties, especially because of the intervening holidays. So we have decided (and will soon announce in the Federal Register) to add two weeks beyond the scheduled end of this forum. We will use that period from Jan. 7 to Jan. 21 to revisit, on a more detailed level, all three focus areas that will have been addressed by then—perhaps asking you to dive deeper into a few areas that, by then, show themselves as deserving additional attention.

Thanks for your continued involvement in this experiment in open government and public engagement. We look forward to learning from you!